Maurer's Music Mayhem

Category Archives: GeoCaching

Jen and I are avid GeoCachers. We download between 200 & 500 geocaches in a pocket query and then load those onto three GPSrs and a Palm Tungsten E. This gives us ultimate capability with no paper. These devices work much better out in the woods where there is no cell phone service than our smart phones.

I upgraded my computer this week to a 64-bit Windows Pro machine. There are updated apps and drivers for all my utilities and programs EXCEPT my Palm. ARGH!

We spent the day geocaching in Kelley Point Park near St. Johns today. When trying to pick a new location, Sara located a couple parks in North Portland. None of us expected much, I mean after all, this is N. Portland, known for gang activity and being the “rough part of town.”

But we were pleasantly surprised by two beautiful parks. Kelley Point Park is at the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette rivers. Filled with trails and places for picnics, this was a gorgeous place to start our day.

Pier Park is nestled in an industrial area just outside of St. Johns. But this, too, was a beautiful park. This urban locale featured several softball fields, a Frisbee golf course, and nearly a dozen caches.

Needless to say, we were all pleasantly surprised with this part of Portland. We’ll definitely be back, as there are plenty more caches to discover!

Jen and I have been geocaching for nearly 4 years. Cousin Sara has been caching with us for 3 years. And today, we spent the day in Keizer at the 2nd annual Keizer Iris Festival Geocaching Event. We had a great time and collected a great new geocoin for our efforts.

After the event, we cached for a couple more hours and found our 1,800th career geocache. It was called Foghorn Leghorn, and when we arrived this is what we discovered! How would you like to have this eight foot statue in your front yard?

It has been ten months since we last went caching! So it was good to get back out after blustry and cold winter months. We had a beautiful day, crisp, clear, and sunny. We teamed up with cousin Sara, our regular caching partner, and headed to Oregon City. We’ve enjoyed caching here before, so I was looking forward to another outing.

Nearly 100 ducks greet the geocachers

Today turned into a numbers day. We grabbed 30 caches. Most of them were not incredibly memorable. But that is becoming the norm with urban caching. A highlite for me was the hide at a duck pond. As we walked up, it seemed that all the residents waddled toward me. Quacking and honking as the approached, the sun glinting off their green heads. It was quite spectacular.